19 Jul A Few Observations Concerning the Shape of the Earth and an Open Challenge to Rob Skiba

A few brief comments and observations concerning the shape of the earth. If you are a flat earther or are considering the notion that the earth may be flat, please think through the following examples of very simple observations that disprove any such notion.

The sun and moon. We may observe both set below the horizon every day. If the earth was flat, the sun and moon would appear to be far larger when directly overhead, and would then appear to become significantly smaller as they moved away. (In fact, using the measurements of flat earth proponents, it would literally appear to be hundreds of times larger). This is called perspective. The farther things move away, the smaller they become. As a rule, if measured, the sun and moon are always the same size. If the earth were flat, then throughout the night, we could continue to observe them both with telescopes. But this is absolutely impossible. Why? Because they are not simply far away, instead they are below the horizon line and out of our line of sight. This is undeniable proof that the earth is spherical and not flat.

The southern celestial pole. If someone is in the southern hemisphere, they can calculate the location of the southern celestial pole (just slightly off from the southern cross) and film the clockwise rotation of the stars around it. Photographers have done this tens of thousands of times. It is precisely the opposite in the northern hemisphere where the stars rotate counter-clockwise around Polaris, (aka., the North Star). This is exactly what one would observe if the earth were a sphere. If the earth were flat, there would simply not be a southern celestial pole, only a north pole. Yet there is both. This also is undeniable proof the earth is spherical and not flat.

Short flights in the southern hemisphere. If the earth were flat, then flying for example, from Sydney, Australia to Santiago, Chile would take us directly over Alaska, etc. It would take in the range of 30+ hours. Yet this is not the route these flights take, and this is not how long they take. Instead, the Sydney to Santiago flight goes over parts of Antartica and only takes about 14 hours. This is undeniable proof the earth is spherical.

The short flight challenge: I am offering Rob Skiba or any other very prominent flat-earth proponent to fly this route with me. If the flight takes 20-40 hours, I will pay for the whole trip for both of us and publicly repent. If the flight takes roughly 14-15 hours, then they will pay for the whole trip for both of us and publicly repent.

Southern Constellations. If the earth were flat, then the view south from the southern parts of Africa, Australia, and Argentina would all be very different. Yet they all see the same constellations, such as Crux, or the Southern Cross. This is irrefutable proof the earth is spherical and not flat.

Friends, please use your God given brains, put this nonsense aside, and let’s get onto the much more important activities that the Lord has called us to.

Blessings,

Joel

22 Comments

Steve Fowler

Posted at 19:28h, 20 July

Brother Richardson, thanks. To add: if the earth were flat then we would not be able to launch satellites and have them orbit the earth. The earth has been observed by numerous astronauts to be round. If it was not round then orbital mechanics would not work.

Joel

Posted at 03:26h, 21 July

Steve,

Yes of course. Flat-earthers claim that that is all fakery. Its all a conspiracy theory to deceive us. This is why I simply was highlighting things one may observe with their own two eyes, beyond the ability of any conspiracy theory to fake. But of course, you are absolutely correct.

Blessings,
Joel

Linda keyes

Posted at 13:12h, 21 July

Also Joel

If you flew from Sydney, and kept going without making a single turn in any direction, would you see the edge off the the earth as you fly past? 😂 And where about is the edge, would you fall off in a boat😂😂

Is the sea a big wobbly wall at the edge? 😂 Or a beach? Madness

Tim Willett

Posted at 14:40h, 24 July

I think an important thing for people to get, though, is that most cultures in the Ancient Near East believed the earth was flat and thus the Biblical authors reflect this view in their writings. For example, Genesis 1, and many of the metaphors in the Psalm and Prophets reflect ancient Near Eastern cosmology of a flat earth. Now many people have been taught to read the Bible through our modern enlightenment world view and to see it as an “answer book” for everything and thus conclude that if it has even a scientific inaccuracy in it, it could not possibly be the Word of God. The natural conclusion then, is that you have to choose to believe that the earth is flat or accept the Bible is false. When left with that choice accepting a flat earth is usually easier to come to grips with than giving up their faith.

So it’s not just simply showing that the flat earth view is not accurate but also helping people to learn a better lens for reading the Bible that is needed, IMO.

Joel

Posted at 15:46h, 24 July

Tim,

Exactly.

Paul Cote

Posted at 20:21h, 26 July

I’m new to your site… Have you addressed the geocentric hypothesis, which says the earth is stationary and all else revolves around it.
Most cite the Tycho(?) model which has the two innermost planets, as well as the sun, revolving around earth, to account for the apparent retrograde motion of planets in the night sky.

Mike Gana

Posted at 17:14h, 29 July

Hi Joel,

I came across “The Principle” ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ED93myL5sc ) which is a documentary arguing that there is enough scientific evidence to suggest that earth is at the centre of our universe – they call this Geocentricism. It stands opposed to Heliocentricism – which asserts that the sun is at the centre of our universe. The argument is that Heliocentricism was put forward by Copernicus in opposition to the then popular geocentric worldview of his day. The allegation is that Copernicus did not have sufficient evidence to support all his claims at the time, but the “Copernican principle” caught on none the less and became the foundation for the Heliocentric scientific worldview we have today of the earth and the universe as a whole.

It is my understanding from the documentary that science is still unable to answer some of the basic assumptions of the “Copernican principle”, especially as they from the basis of our present day scientific world view. One of the unsolved mysteries is to do with the measurements regarding the curvature of the earth, and the ability to see objects in the distance across tens of miles – even hundreds of miles in the distance. The dimensions and measurements for the curvature of the earth, should make it impossible to see objects across hundreds of miles; since the objects should fall below the horizon on the other side of the curve of the earth. however it can be demonstrated that this is not the case,

I am not arguing for a flat earth. I am just pointing out that science hasn’t been able to answer all the questions that the Heliocentric worldview presents. They at least haven;t been able to answer all the questions raised by the flat-earthers. What I find really intriguing is that I can’t find any evidence in scripture that the earth revolves around the sun, or that there was a “big-bang”, or that we evolved from apes. So I’m not so quick to uphold the de-facto scientific worldview as being above criticism,

Joel

Posted at 18:22h, 29 July

Rejecting the fact earth nonsense doesn’t mean that we blindly accept every item set forth by the scientific community. Thats a false dichotomy that I see flat earth proponents repeatedly make. I’ve seen the Principle and quite enjoyed it. As I have said however, whether or not the universe is geocentric or heliocentric is an entirely different matter than whether or not the earth is flat. The earth is not flat and it is very easy to prove. I continue to be mystified that intelligent thinking folks are being suckered into believing this stuff.

If you carefully analyze flat earth arguments, you will see that flat-earth proponents primarily focus, not on scientifically proving any of their claims, but instead focus on sowing doubt in conventional scientific ideas and institutions. There focus is to tear down much more than it is to prove anything otherwise. Not surprisingly, this is precisely the same technique that I have watched Muslim evangelists use to win converts over the years.

The issue of seeing a particular city or a mountain range etc., at great distances is one such example. There are dozens, if not hundreds of videos out there on Youtube trying o show that since one can see some city or mountain some distance off, this proves a flat earth. These videos are consistently nonsense. Many re outright deceptive. They are all quite easy to debunk if someone is simply willing to apply some critical thought and do some further study. Any serious inquiry into these matters will show that our view of various cities and mountains aligns precisely with what would be expected if the earth were curved at the specific distances that they should be. Yes, there are times when various mirages make this a really fun and very interesting experiment, but in the end, they always prove that the earth is curved.

Mike Gana

Posted at 07:41h, 30 July

Hey Joel,

Thank you for taking time out to comment, and for the links. I love the stuff you put out, thanks again. May the Lord continue to bless and enable you in all that you do for the Kingdom. Keep up the good work.

Joel

Posted at 12:23h, 30 July

Thanks so much Mike.

B. J. Butler

Posted at 16:46h, 30 July

It is He who sits above the circle of the Earth. . . Isaiah 40:22

I can’t find any place where the Bible indicates the Earth is flat.
God would never allow His Word to reflect a lie.

Joel

Posted at 17:53h, 30 July

Yes, the Bible uses the language of a flat earth, having four corners, etc., but this is not reflecting a lie. In the same way that it says that God searches hearts and kidneys (the Biblical authors believed that thoughts were in the kidneys and not the brain) this is not a lie, but simply the language of the time. Thousands of other examples could be shown.

Linda Keyes

Posted at 17:36h, 09 August

Ah Joel

So they say there’s an ice wall around the edge, not a wobbly water wall or beach as I surmised.

I guess that’s why they’re so concerned about climate change, if them there ice walls melt, we’d have the most disastrous waterfall ever 🙂

Jack

Posted at 13:20h, 14 August

I like your chanllenge to Rob Skiba, for this flat earth non-sense need to be stop ASAP. The flat earth non-sense making Chritians look like fools to the world, causing the world to hate us even more. Rob Skiba needs to repent his false teaching that causing division among brothers.

Gabriel

Posted at 19:42h, 16 August

I believe that a lost of this comes from some of the inconsistencies with NASA ranging from lunar landing conspiracies in general, but for me would be the MKUltra program starting and stopping almost at the exact same time as the lunar missions as Rob Skiba points out, how we haven’t been back to the moon even as our technology has advanced eleventy-billion fold from the 60s and 70s, how we don’t have a non-CGI photo of Earth yet we have pictures of Pluto somehow, etc. Rob Skiba’s pointing out of Operation Fishbowl being a part of Operation Dominic, Dominic meaning “Of The Lord,” so they were launching nuclear weaponry up in the air toward The Fishbowl of The Lord. A small taste of the hours and hours of video he has out there on the subject. I mean even he says break out your tin foil hats and question everything he presents because it is going to sound crazy and he presents a whole lot of good points. Of course, so does Joel and many others.

Joel

Posted at 19:52h, 16 August

We have hundreds of thousands of pictures of the earth that are not CGI. There is actually a live feed for goodness sake. Folks can trust in conspiracy theories, or they can try to disprove any of the very simple facts that I have detailed here. Trust what you can observe with your own eyes.

Gabriel

Posted at 22:44h, 16 August

On the topic of the CGI Earth pictures, aside from the 2012 monstrosity that made North America and Africa gigantic, what about Robert Simmons, who is affectionately known as “Mr. Blue Marble” by NASA, stating that the Earth pictures we have now is a composite of many different snapshots of the planet and has to be photoshopped, then reaffirmed that then detailed how he had to spruce it up to make the images pop? I mean the Himawari-8 weather satellite is nice and all, but there are no stars in the background even in the dead of night when the Sun is not lighting the Earth, The Sun is never in view even as it’s circling around (though some say the digital distortions on the bottom left and right are where the Sun is and the intensity is causing the video to cancel it out, but as you track it across the almost direct middle of the Earth in a straight line it shows up…at the bottom left and right?)

Joel

Posted at 05:42h, 17 August

Gabriel,

Your comments betray a basic lack of familiarity with photography. Yes, some of NASA’s images of the full earth are pieced together and altered. Your re referring to the Blue Marble images. They are made from the ISS (The International Space Station) which is not far away enough from the earth to take full pictures of the entire earth, so they piece together images. Some of these are really bad and really inconsistent. But those are not “CGI.” They are simply poorly done composites of multiple images pieced together. For a much more informed and not conspiracy-theory driven explanation of this, click here:

As far as “altered” images, virtually every picture you see in any magazine or online has been “altered,” in that almost no photographer gets a perfect image right out of the can. This is usually something as small as cropping, color enhancing, adjusting exposure, etc. Yet any time this has been done, the image has technically been “altered.” Many Flat-Earthers do not know the different between a real image that has been slightly “altered” and actual CGI. GCI, meaning Computer Generated Image, may be something as crazy as Planet of the Apes, completely made up imagery of apes riding horses and so forth. The ISS has taken thousands of images of the earth. It takes them every day. We can piece them together and prove that the map of the earth that Flat-Earthers use is totally wrong, and the one used by the spherical model is accurate.

Beside the ISS, there are also satellites that are taking full disk pictures of the earth, every day, all day. You can follow them online and even collate them together if you wish. Here is a link to the various satellites that are doing this, giving us full pictures of the earth from space, all day long:

As a photographer, I can assure you that the simple reason that photographs of the earth from space do have stars in the background is simple. Its called aperture. Cameras need to adjust their to capture the earth, which makes it impossible to photograph the stars at the same time. Show me a single picture of yourself at night where you can see the stars behind you. You cannot do it. You camera will not allow it. Unless you sit still for a very long time as the shutter opens for about ten seconds. You would be “blown out” which means extremely bright so as to not make out any of your features, and the stars would be present. Its very very simple.

If you are open to consider some much more well informed and reasoned info, here are some more links:

I’ve been battling these flat earthers for a couple of months now (no more wasted time) … a question they will not and cannot answer is why during the most resent Solar eclipse did the shadow of the Moon cross the USA from the upper west to the lower east when what we see in the sky is it moving from the east to the west …. the answer is quite simple and maybe yall can have better luck than me … I keep getting banned from the site https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=6764.msg123621#msg123621 … btw: tellm boodidlie says hey

The folks who don’t see the flat earth theory. The earth does not have an edge that you can fall off, look at the models on sites. It is like a snow cone where we are under a canopy., you can’t fall off as there is no edge. There is so much information on the flat earth. I went all out to disprove my son when I first heard about it and in doing so, I am now a flat earth believer. Far too much to put in writing. Don’t turn to NASA to get all your info, they have their own agenda as well.

Joel

Posted at 03:44h, 01 October

Sigh…

Hi Fay, if the earth is flat, then disprove one of the issues I have brought up. Don’t put your faith in deceivers like Rob Skiba. They also have their own agenda.

Jim Goodrich

Posted at 18:41h, 30 October

If the earth is flat why don’t they take a flight near the edge and take a photo. So what’s on the bottom? These folks don’t understand that everything else that comes out of their mouth has no weight what so ever.

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